The present efforts in climate modeling are far from being
sufficient for providing realistic numbers on the influence of
anthropogenic aerosols on the state of the atmosphere (e.g. IPCC
2013; CCSP report: Chin et al., 2009; Houghton et al., 2007). To
improve this unsatisfactory situation, future space-borne aerosol
lidar missions must allow an accurate characterization of the
aerosol in terms of aerosol type, vertical layering, light
extinction and absorption properties, and microphysical properties
including a proper monitoring of the long-range transport of
anthropogenic particles like haze or smoke, natural aerosols like
volcanic ash, mineral dust, marine particles, and especially
mixtures of the mentioned aerosol types on a regional to
hemispheric scale.
The airborne HSRL (3b + 2a + 3d) will enable:
- A refined aerosol typing and discrimination of
highly depolarizing cirrus clouds from strongly depolarizing
aerosol particles, e.g. mineral dust and fresh volcanic ash, weakly
depolarizing forest-fire smoke, and non-depolarizing pollution (for
example sulfate particles), based on its 3d capabilities
- The retrieval of profiles of microphysical particle
properties (size distribution, complex refractive index,
volume and surface concentrations) as well as of the refractive
index characteristics (absorption, scattering, SSA) leading
ultimately to the quantification of the aerosol radiative
forcing (accuracy better than 1 W/m2), based on
its 3b + 2a capabilities
- Direct comparison of the lidar products to the
space-borne systems (ADM-Aeolus, EarthCARE) when the
aircraft flies/crosses underneath the orbit of the space lidar
- Synergies / cross-validation against airborne in situ
instrumentation (particle size distribution, chemical
composition and optical properties - e.g. scattering and absorption
coefficients)
The instrument will enforce the airborne European Infrastructure
and will contribute to the thematic areas of H2020 as well as ESA
priorities. Some examples of the applicability include:
- Cal/val activities for ESA space-borne systems (ADM-Aeolus,
EarthCARE, Sentinels-3/-4/-5/-5p)
- Atmospheric corrections for passive sensors and subsequent
applications
- Aerosol-cloud interaction, precipitation and weather
- Radiative transfer and climate change
- Model validation and data assimilation
- Discrimination of natural and anthropogenic aerosol component,
assessment of human impacts
- Regional process studies, transport, air quality and
health